Changed cartoons edits:


First Cartoon
By
Melissa B
enson

The House of Commons failed to give Michael Ignatieff’s enough votes for the
non-confidence vote and is allowing Stephen Harper’s (voted by the Canadian people) minority Government to live on. The man on the blind horse/donkey symbolizes Michael Ignatieff from the Liberal party of Canada and the blind horse/donkey is a symbol of him leading the liberal party in an effort to call an election and become Prime minister of Canada,(;) basically it’s the blind leading the blind. He is shouting “Charge” which is representing Michael Ignatieff attempting
(to) lead a non-existent following to overrule the Stephen Harper’s Conservative Government with the non-confidence vote. The red tie and the red saddle blanket is a representation of the Liberal party of Canada. The sign “Beware quicksand” demonstrates his political goals plummeting and as he stands he is oblivious of any sort of danger he is sinking in to. His blind horse/donkey is standing in quicksand the reason the quicksand is marked as “Quebec” is because the liberal party leader, Michael Ignatieff, made a speech to a crowd of Quebec liberal followers about how the Stephen Harper government isn’t doing what it set out to do. Protesting Mr. Harper needs an alternative person to get him out of the parliament seat and the only other person truly qualified is Michael Ignatieff. Then, they looked at the latest poll for the party’s and the new percentage points towards the Harper Government, which is why Quebec is “sinking” for the liberal party. I do not think that the Cartoon artist could make this any funnier; I believe he did a very good job on representing the current political events, his political point of view and possibly the country's political view.
8/10

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Second Cartoon
By:
Melissa Benson

In this cartoon the Liberal party is upset as they feel the Conservative party is taking credit for the injection of money to help stimulate the economy. By Stephen Harper having the conservative logo on the cheque is the reason why the liberals are so angry with them. Stephen Harper is giving out the stimulus money to the people to help kindle the economy’s meltdown with this helpful stimulus package. Conservative MP signed a couple checks which would be why his signature is presented on the bottom right side of the featured cheque. Conservatives put their insignia/logo on the cheque and made it look like the conservatives are the ones that are giving out the support, instead of the Government putting together the tax dollars for this package. It also represents how Parliament is not backing the Conservative Government on the stimulus package so all the credit is going to the conservative party. The word “Partisan” (his catch phrase) points toward the Conservative party trying to make it their own agenda from the opposition’s parties’ point of view. He’s dressed up as a “magician” and is called “The amazing Harper-Oni” because he’s using the cheques’, which is our own paid tax dollars, to stimulate the economy. Taxpayer’s money comes in and then “Poof” magically turns in to conservative dollars. The opposition parties believe the conservative party is showing off instead of just trying to help out the nation. This artist made some very good points with the cartoon above. He was able to show us the different viewpoints in our own population in his cartoon, which helps us, understand the news articles and media buzz around this political event. He described it very well and added his own humour to the cartoon. Making people laugh is his job and drawing/writing about real life things would be something this artist is extremely good at. The only thing I would do to change this cartoon for the better, is adding a background. Like having this whole layout of the cartoon on a stage or theatre, so “The amazing Harper-Oni” would be performing his wonderful stimulus trick, as the opposition parties imagine. I do not agree with the cartoon because I do not feel Mr. Harper really meant to portray himself and his team to be the all mighty savers of the stimulus package. I feel his strategy was to show Canada that the Conservative Government is trying to do something helpful for the Canadian people to help “kick start” the economy and the Liberals are trying at every opportunity to discredit the Prime Minister and the Conservative Party. I do feel that Stephen Harper should have been more aware of the actions/or how he portrays his government, so that his team and him wouldn’t be in this specific media spotlight.

Definition of Partisan:

1. a fervent, sometimes militant supporter or proponent of a party, cause, faction, person, or idea.

2. A member of an organized body of fighters who attack or harass an enemy, especially within occupied territory; a guerrilla.
Adj.


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Third cartoon
By:
Melissa Benson


Melissa, I have tried very hard (literally for hours) to edit your space and there is something wrong. It keeps jumping around and it won't let me highlight things properly so on this last one I am going to try something different. I am just going to put brackets around things instead, okay - it will be a little harder for you to read. Sorry

This cartoon represents...the spread of the H1N1 influenza which is sweeping our nation just as the hype for Olympics, one torch at a time. Melissa you absolutely don't have to use this exact sentence I am just trying to show you that you need to get specific on what it represents ...it does not represent the Olympics but rather used the Olympics to represent the swine flu. See the difference?

This cartoon represents the 2010 Olympics, along with the volunteers running with the torch and how the H1N1 influenza is sweeping our nation, one torch at a time. The torch represents H1N1 and how it can easily be passed on from someone who has it onto friends or family members that do not. When running with the baton or in this case torch, it is very easy to pass it off to the other member you’re running towards, just as easily you could be spreading H1N1 flu to another person. The two runners wearing the Canadian red Olympic colors are symbols of the Olympics of 2010, which are being held in Whistler, BC. Because of the Olympics being in 2010 the hype for this huge event is growing like wild fire. People around the world are talking about it and even the government and parliament figures are very into this event to bring attention to Canada, bringing more tourism and financial gain to this great nation. Now knowing that the country is up for this huge event, the government doesn’t want to have bad publicity on the nation due to an influenza/virus outbreak and not have as many people show up because of the swine influenza outbreak. So they’ve rushed out the vaccine, skipping all the normal testing and safety measures for normal vaccines. Just so our tourism and health is positive for other countries and will entice more tourism for the Olympics. Putting out a high-risk untested vaccine to the public on quick notice is a pretty crazy idea; it is a higher risk to your health than the swine influenza this country is trying to deal with. You can risk getting sick and not knowing if you got swine flu and possibly die or you can get the vaccine and risk the possibility of getting just as sick from that.
When you get swine flu you go under quarantine in your house for at least 7 days, clean and clear fluids and lots of bed rest, medication as provided by your doctor. The bearer in waiting is drenching his hands in “hand sanitizer”, as Canada is stressing the use of hand sanitizer for prevention of passing on the H1N1 influenza/virus. The torchbearers face is terrified and he just wants to let go of the torch and seek medical attention. (I’m assuming the dots floating around the runner is the influenza/virus) The bearer in waiting is saying “Hurry” because he wants as much hand sanitizer on his hands as possible before he goes into his run, the only down fall to having that much on is good luck holding onto the torch. The phrase “ Coming to a town near you” is a strongly representing the H1N1 influenza and how it will be coming to a town/city near you because people are transferring it to other people across the world from just going to other cities or even vacation hot spots and picking up the influenza and bringing it home. Swine flu comes from the 1918 flu pandemic (mostly known as the Spanish flu) that was transferred from humans to swine’s and back again; it was able to travel to nearly every single region around the world. They had an estimation of about 50 to 100 million people that were killed worldwide from this horrific flu epidemic. This was the very start of the H1N1 influenza epidemic that we’re living in today. What’s scary now is how this virus is hopping from pigs/animals to humans. This is why people nowadays are saying its’ a huge importance to stay healthy and to wash your hands, for fear of spreading this virus even further. The backdrop to this cartoon is standing for the amount of people cheering on the Olympics; there isn’t a lot of support because of the swine flu outbreak cause everyone who gets this virus/influenza to go into quarantine in their homes or they are scared to leave their homes in fear of catching this flu. The artist made a very good point with this cartoon; he looked at all the possibilities and made it so the reader of this cartoon could understand it very easily. He understood the political part of the cartoon and the hilarious part making them separate but in the same cartoon. I also think he did this cartoon to raise awareness to the people who may be more prone to getting H1N1, telling us it is easily passed from one person to another and you should look into the vaccine before you get vaccinated, weigh the pros and cons with the vaccine. I agree with the cartoon because this virus/influenza nowadays is easier to spread around to friends and family, swine flu is become a bigger and bigger problem for Canadians to face everyday. I think I would change the background of this cartoon, add some snow on the ground and keep it overcast; I mean it is “Winter Olympics” then I would add in that the hand sanitizer would freeze to the torchbearer’s hand.
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